Ali Parsa, the boss of Circle Healthcare. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

The first private company to be given the right to deliver a full range of services to the NHS has promised to attract patients by promoting itself as the "safest, cleanest" hospital in the health service while Labour and the unions questioned whether the indebted firm had the financial clout to succeed.

Ali Parsa, the boss of Circle Healthcare, told the Guardian he would take control of Hinchingbrooke hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on Wednesday and aim to raise its performance to the level of his Bath hospital for cleanliness and safety.

Last year CircleBath had no cases of MRSA bloodstream infections, compared with the national NHS trusts rate of 1.8 cases per 100,000 bed days. During the past 12 months CircleBath has had just two unplanned returns to non-emergency surgery – a rate of about 0.5% compared with 1.6% in the NHS.

Parsa said: "We have looked at what patients want and it is timely care, seeing a consultant quickly, not waiting around. It's good food, so yes, we will hire Michelin-starred chefs. But they want safe, clean hospitals. Bad healthcare kills. If healthcare was an airline, we are losing a 747 every month by the number of people who are unnecessarily dying in our industry. That's why patients will come to us rather than driving to Peterborough for a hospital visit."

Circle seeks to cut costs – catering departments have to improve quality for less money – and increase patient numbers to increase revenue. The idea is to make money and share profits between investors, including City hedge funds, which own 50.1% of the company, and the staff, who own the rest.

The problem, say its detractors, is that Circle lost £10m in the six months up to June 2011. It also carries a debt of more than £95m. Hinchingbrooke hospital has debts of more than £40m and reported a deficit of £2m in October.

"[It's] a loss-making indebted company taking over a loss-making indebted hospital," said Labour's health spokesman Andrew Gwynne. "It's a major worry that could see the taxpayer pick up the pieces if a major hospital like Hinchingbrooke were to go under".

Parsa accepted his own share prospectus outlined "risks" when he floated Circle on the stock market last year but said: "You call it losses. I call it investment. Look, Facebook loses money, but do you think they are not investing in their business? All but £14m of our debt is secured on buildings and assets worth much more. The UK economy is 100% leveraged. With Hinchingbrooke we have £200m of revenue and have a debt ratio of just 7%. We are totally safe."

Parsa dismissed Labour calls for regulators to bring forward a proposed regime that would impose borrowing limits on providers and lock them into running services even if they proved unprofitable. "I think these things will only stop innovation," he said.

Although the takeover of the hospital is a landmark in the NHS, the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will keep a low profile on Wednesday. He will flood the House of Lords with 100 amendments to his bill, designed to assuage critics of his NHS reforms, which are due to be debated by peers next week.

The most striking amendments force regulators to ensure that new entrants to the NHS "integrate" with the health service, that there is patient involvement when GPs decide to purchase services on their behalf and that doctors ensure that they reduce health inequalities.

The unions continue to oppose what they regard as "creeping privatisation" of the NHS. Christina McAnea, Unison's head of health, said: "Patients and hospital staff are right to be worried today. Bringing in an inexperienced private company to run Hinchingbrooke is an accident waiting to happen. The company has the same dangerous property set-up as Southern Cross – and serious questions have been raised about its financial security.

"Patients should come first, but Circle's priority will be its profits. Their mantra is they will do more with less, but this is impossible. This is nothing more than an experiment for the privatisation of our NHS which is putting patients at serious risk."